Finally, forward momentum. (And with that at 4am a cat just made the most horrific noise outside, three times now. It sounds like its being eaten alive.)
Having chosen the right drive from each pair of my RAID 1+0 array a month ago when I destroyed two drives to create a software RAID 0 array, I was finally able to access my old data and recover the two days of files that had not been backed up. Its resassuring to know I really can lose 50% of my RAID 1+0 array and, given I only lose one drive from each pair, the 3Ware card is happy to let me access my data.
I moved the missing files to the RAID 0 array, transferred those from there to the backup server, then destroyed the degraded RAID 1+0 array and the software RAID 0 array. I’m now restoring from backup to a RAID 5 array via rsync using the rsh quick guide I wrote up earlier for extra speed. Hopefully 3Ware 7xxx series cards really do have reasonable RAID 5 performance. I guess I’ll find out. I hope I wasn’t spoiled with RAID 1+0 and random fast writes.
I need to buy another drive or two so I have enough space on the backup server again. The 6410 was supposed to be moved there, but now that its dead I only have a 6200 available. In the meantime I’m looking forward to running a U80 Quantum Atlas 10K RPM 9GB SCSI drive on the file server, once I finally get an Adaptec 2940U2W card.